Volunteering with beneficiary organisations such as charities and social enterprises makes a real impact in our society. It is estimated that 11 million UK employees are offered an opportunity to volunteer during work hours. Tapping into this resource can really make a difference!
But how do you make the most out of your volunteering schemes? whatimpact’s Volunteering HUB has been designed to help!
For Volunteering Managers and HR teams:
Company volunteering can be a fantastically impactful activity to invest in, so it is important to set clear strategies and processes to manage these activities effectively. The key to effective volunteering is to understand the demand for skilled or unskilled volunteering. The best way to do this is to connect with local VCSE organisations and hear from them first hand. Here at whatimpact.com, we have identified methods to create successful volunteering that your colleagues will engage with:
Understanding the demand:
Search our member directory to find VCSE organisations that fit your criteria and align with your social value goals. Once you have found suitable VCSE members, look through their profiles to learn about who they are, what they do and their demand for volunteers. Member profiles will list their volunteering needs in their How To Help sections. If you would like to find out more, message the member directly to discuss their volunteering requests via their profiles / inbox. You can then create a bespoke skills-based volunteering offer, responding to specific local demand, which align with your company’s CSR strategy.
Nominating VCSE organisations:
If your company has specific charities, social enterprises or unregistered community groups in mind, nominate these organisations in your Volunteering Hub as Suggested Partners. This will guide your colleagues to volunteer with VCSE organisations that help you to achieve your social value goals. You can nominate these specific organisations and describe the volunteering required in your Volunteering Hub.
Self-Volunteering:
If your company is happy for your team to find and pursue their own VCSE partners, you can either recommend that they use our member directory to find organisations or they are welcome to volunteer with non-whatimpact members also. To track their volunteering, all they need to do is input their data into your company’s Volunteering Hub Live link.
Communicating to your teams:
To engage your colleagues to participate and make the most of their volunteering hours, communication is key! Inspire your colleagues to get involved by promoting your Volunteering Hub link. Here they will find insightful information detailing your companies social value strategy, volunteering scheme, nominated VCSE partners and educational materials on how to volunteer / record their hours through the site. As well as that, we would recommend that they read the following information describing our tips on how to make the most of volunteering with local initiatives:
For Company Volunteers:
Understand you company’s social value scheme:
Your company’s Volunteering Hub live link will clearly define the social mission, goals and values that your commpany wishes to achieve through volunteering with local initiatives. Read through the VolHub live link to also understand your volunteering allowance, how to arrange logistics, and any other terms and conditions set out by your organisation.
Volunteering with Suggested VCSE’s or through Self-Volunteering:
Within the Volunteering Hub live link, your company will suggest nominated organisations or will allow you to choose organisations to volunteer with independently. These VCSE organisations can be whatimpact members or non whatimpact members.
Report back:
Your company will get a comprehensive social impact report from any charity or social enterprise your organisation supported with more than £5,000 worth of volunteering or other resources.
Within the Volunteering Hub live link, you can easily register your volunteering hours, give testimonials and upload any photos. By registering your volunteering, the impact your company has made can be analysed and reported on both internally and externally.
You can be a game changer in your organisation by inviting your colleagues to volunteer with you or creating official company skills-based volunteering packages. Research shows that peer to peer recommendation is the most powerful motivator to connect with social value organisations and to volunteer/donate. Your advocacy really matters!
Happy volunteering!
P.S. If your company is not already listed on whatimpact.com, please contact sara@whatimpact.com to book a demo.
To read more about different types of volunteering – give our blog here a read. You can also listen to our CEO Tiia Sammallahti on a webinar with the FSI discussing the challenges & opportunities of volunteering here.
